Attacks kill over 30, wound 218 in Iraq

Emergency services personnel inspect the site of a bomb attack Wednesday in Kirkuk, Iraq. At least 33 people were killed and 218 others were wounded Wednesday in several attacks in different parts of the country, some against Kurdish targets, police told Efe. EFE

Baghdad, Jan 16 (EFE).- At least 33 people were killed and 218 others were wounded Wednesday in several attacks in different parts of Iraq, some against Kurdish targets, police told Efe.

The deadliest attacks occurred in Kurkuk, a city 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad where at least 15 people died and 105 were wounded by a car bomb driven by a suicide attacker near offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, or KDP.

The KDP is the party of Massoud Barzani, the current president of Iraqi Kurdistan, an autonomous region of northeastern Iraq.

Shortly afterward, another vehicle loaded with explosives detonated when a convoy of KDP leader Mohamed Kamal, member of the Kirkuk Provincial Council, was passing by en route to the site of the first attack. That blast left one dead and 37 wounded, including the politician.

In Tuz Khormato, a town 220 kilometers (135 miles) north of the capital, at least five people were killed and 40 wounded by the detonation of a car bomb parked near some offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, whose leader, Jalal Talabani, is the current president of Iraq.

Offices of the Kurdish security forces, known as "peshmerga," also are located near the site of that car-bomb blast.

Four people also were killed, including a police officer, and nine others were wounded in other attacks Wednesday in Saladin province, located north of Baghdad.

Meanwhile, three policemen died and their vehicle was set ablaze in an attack by armed men in the Shaab neighborhood of northeast Baghdad.

In other parts of the capital, five people died and 23 were wounded in various bomb attacks.